Before Bryce Harper returned to his lineup three weeks ago, Matt Williams suggested he planned to mix and match his lineups, with Ryan Zimmerman in particular bouncing around multiple positions. To date, that hadn’t really happened. Zimmerman stayed at third base. Harper stayed in left field. Denard Span stayed in center field. Anthony Rendon stayed at second base.

Tonight, though, Williams is doing some mixing and matching. With left-hander Franklin Morales on the mound for the Rockies, Zimmerman is shifting to left field. That means Rendon shifts to third base, with Danny Espinosa getting the start at second base. And that means Bryce Harper is taking a seat, at least for one night.

Doug Fister certainly will appreciate strong infield defense behind him as the groundball specialist makes his first start of the second half, seeking to match Tanner Roark for the team lead with nine wins.

I’m not on the first two legs of this road trip; I will be in Miami next week for the final leg. In the meantime, enjoy the game and the conversation…

As Kilgore points out, ALR has played 46 straight games and is hitting .140 this month. I don’t understand why you don’t put Zim at 1B and leave Harper in LF.

Eric - Jul 21, 2014 at 5:24 PM

Maybe the idea is to match up the defense with the pitcher, rather than to maximize offense? If so, it might make sense to move LaRoche to #8 against the lefty, but then again he wasn’t horrible at the plate yesterday, so maybe Williams wants to let him swing out of it.

Because, quite simply, Zim looks terrible at first base, and that’s sort of a high-traffic position. He’ll be better off in LF, where chances are few, he’ll get good reads and jumps and Desi will come out 60 feet to get his throws.

I don’t either, but Zim needs to play first base at least as well as Morse did (which wasn’t well, but it was workable). There are two many plays there. Hopefully we will get a good lead and Harper can come in and get a couple of at-bats.

Here’s the thing. Last time I checked, Harper can’t play first base, and neither can Zim (yet). So if you rest ALR you have to put Frandsen at 1B. That was Matty’s choice, either Harper or Zim in LF. He chose Zim. Tomorrow he might make a different choice, though hard to predict with TBD scheduled to start for the Rockies.

Not a lot of chances, but IIRC, there was a play a week ago Sunday where Frandsen bounced a throw from 3B that Zim couldn’t pick. Scorer gave Frandsen the error, but it could as easily have gone to Zim.

More importantly, it was a throw that ALR probably gets.

Now, small sample size and all that, but it was Zim’s more recent appearance at 1B and probably didn’t inspire a lot of confidence in putting him behind a groundball pitcher.

Natslady always hated Morse at first base … yet objective observers and stats clearly indicate that LaRoche’s defense is very much subpar this season? Zim has better wheels and is clearly a lot more athletic than LaEoche his one weakness is that shoulder.

And Zim’s arm is a risk in left field and if fact that is how the Nat’s won last night’s game in a walk off because the left fielder was weak when it came to this. Zim has a -1.2 runs below average in left.

It seems like a better idea to have Zim get better at playing first base now rather than later given:

Harper has a .359/.390/.954 against left-handed pitchers.

LaRoche in a deep slump playing in 42 games straight and limping around at first base has a
.243/.337/.621 against lefties.

That slash line you’re giving for Harper vs LHP is in all of 41 PA this season. Over his career, his BA is 40 pts higher vs RHP, and his SLG is 110 pts higher.

Joe Seamhead - Jul 21, 2014 at 8:43 PM

DP, I rarely disagree with you. I do tonight. Zimm can track the ball. Zimm can catch the ball. Zimm really can not throw the ball. His arm is is worse than Lombardozzi or Tyler out there. I hope it works out.

Zim has played all of 14 innings at 1B. Might be a little early to declare that he’s terrible. Small sample size and all that, indeed. Nonetheless, in Coors Field I’d rather he played there than LF. It will be interesting to see if they Rockies hitters are off to the races on base hits to left. If they get any, of course.

I think RZIM did pretty good in LF. If they gave him 100 games to get used to it, he would be adequate. His only problems are going back towards the wall. There are career left fielders who have far worse arms. The problem with going back would be solved with experience. Is he as good as Harper right now, doubtful. Is he good enough, yes.

The problem with this lineup is at 2B.

natsfan1a - Jul 21, 2014 at 6:12 PM

Meh, it’s back to the DVR for me. Can’t watch in real time for these trips to the West. I’ll pick up the live games again when they get to Ohio. Woo. hoo.

“I’m not on the first two legs of this road trip; I will be in Miami next week for the final leg.”

So the Nats get a three-legged road trip.

MicheleS - Jul 21, 2014 at 7:06 PM

I get the infield defense is a priority for Fister, and I am okay with it. I just want to be able to hang with the Braves until they get to the difficult part of August and we then can make some headway.

Speaking of Blevins, old friend Billy Burns has 45 stolen bases for Oakland at AA, but his OPS is just .668.

Section 222 - Jul 21, 2014 at 11:25 PM

Paging Mr. Seamhead, Mr. Joe Seamhead.

therealjohnc - Jul 22, 2014 at 12:25 AM

See, this is where OPS fails a bit. Because if you don’t hit doubles or triples, but steal your way to second and third nonetheless, you are effectively jacking your SLG. Burns’s splits are .254/.332/.336/.668. Pretty blah. But if you add the stolen bases (and subtract the five CS) then his splits are .254/.332/.454/.786. Not great, but certainly not terrible, especially if he can play good defense.

He still needs to show that he can hold the batting average and BB% high enough to justify playing at higher levels though.

Remember how Zim hurt his shoulder the originally? Diving into home plate. It was a great effort, but I sure wish he’d take better care of his body on those plays. Where did the Zimmermitt go? Has it been retired?

Rockies as a team look worse than the 2012 Astros, who I thought was really bad. Its god Nats are comfortably ahead, they are beating a team they should. looks like Desi is heating up at the right time along with Zim and Werth. Looks like Rendon is a little cold, but i think he will bounce back. The only long term negative is ALR, he looks old and it s now week 7 of his slump. Again, historically ALR starts a season cld and heats up. This season he started hot and has gone cold the past weeks. I really think Rizzo neds to address this. its not a slump it is a clear trend, he does not even hit the ball well.

Bryce’s reaction was plain juvenile. I have no problem with his strikeout, I have a problem with his trying to one up the umpire. Bryce is the one who swung at a clear ball outside the strike zone.

Rockies as a team look worse than the 2012 Astros, who I thought were really bad. Its good Nats are comfortably ahead, they are beating a team they should. Looks like Desi is heating up at the right time along with Zim and Werth. Looks like Rendon is a little cold, but I think he will bounce back. The only long term negative is ALR, he looks old and it is now week 7 of his slump. Again, historically ALR starts a season slow and heats up. This season he started hot and has gone cold the past 7 weeks. I really think Rizzo needs to address this. Its not a slump it is a clear trend, he does not even hit the ball well.

Bryce’s reaction was plain juvenile. I have no problem with his strikeout, I have a problem with his trying to one up the umpire. Bryce is the one who swung at a clear ball outside the strike zone.

Section 222 - Jul 21, 2014 at 11:33 PM

Sorry FP, Ryan Zimmerman does not run out every ball to first. He plays hard, but he dogs it down the line just like everyone else on routine groundballs.

Bryce will go to his grave convinced he tipped that ball. He was showing the bat to the HP ump, to Matty, to Espinosa, to Span, to Rendon, … I think he showed it to most of the first row in the stands. He could NOT believe the call.

Well, lacking scmargenau’s telepathy, I have no real idea whether Harper knew or not. But I can easily see how he would be convinced that he did simply because he swung and heard the double tap of a foul tip/catch. And in a case where there are multiple completely plausible explanations, I’m not willing to adopt one and rule out the others even if it fits my own internal monologue/narrative.

Nice article on Giolito (maybe this was posted already, it’s from a couple of days ago.) Giolito on Tommy John

Doc - Jul 22, 2014 at 9:43 AM

If Dr. Andrews is right, then some definite reforms are needed at the introductory levels for kids.

It shouldn’t be necessarily about winning but about playing smart, healthy baseball. I know that these little league coaches put in lots of time. But they need lots of help in understanding the orthopedics of young kids.